During operation, an internal combustion engines generates heat due to the combustion process taking place inside each cylinder of the engine. As would be known to those skilled in the art of engines, if the engine overheats, it could become damaged. For this reason, many engines are provided with a cooling system.
Some engines are air cooled, but engines that are designed to operate at high speeds or to generate a lot power are preferably liquid cooled. Liquid cooled engine are generally provided with passage inside the engine block, known as cooling jackets, through which liquid can be circulated. As the liquid circulates in the cooling jackets, it absorbs the heat from the engine.
In marine applications, the engines are often provided with what is known as an open-loop cooling system. In such systems, the liquid used is the water from the body of water in which the vehicle operates. Water is taken from the body of water, is made to pass through the cooling jackets, and is then returned to the body of water. For obvious reasons, such a system is impractical for most other applications. In other applications, engines are provided with what is known as a closed-loop cooling system. In such systems, coolant is stored in a reservoir and is made to circulate through the system. In order to maintain the system's efficiency, the coolant itself needs to be cooled as it would otherwise get increasingly hotter. Therefore, these systems are provided with heat exchangers, such as radiators, through which the coolant is circulated to reduce the coolant temperature.
To operate properly, a liquid cooling system must circulate coolant in the vicinity of every source of heat in the engine and/or the components of the engine which get heated by the heat sources. Some portions of the engine also require more cooling than other parts, either because they are more heat sensitive or get hotter. This can often lead to complicated flow paths within the engine. Also, the cooling jackets must also be designed such that coolant continuously flows therethrough. If coolant stagnates inside a cooling jacket, the portion where the coolant stagnates gets hot, which can results in damages to the engine.
Therefore, there is a need for an engine cooling system that addresses at least some of the concerns mentioned above.